A Plum Book of Political Positions

With the change of a new administration, learn about Presidential appointed and other positions within the Federal Government in the new 2016 United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions, or the “Plum Book” now available from the U.S. Government Bookstore.

What is the Plum Book? Known officially as the “United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions,” the Plum Book is published alternately by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs or by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, who handled this year’s version. The 2016 edition lists over 9,000 civil service leadership and support positions (filled and vacant) in the Legislative and Executive branches of the Federal Government that may be subject to noncompetitive appointments.

History of the “Plum Book”

The Plum Book was first published in 1952, when the Dwight D. Eisenhower Administration was voted into office after 20 years of Democratic administrations– first under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and then under President Harry S. Truman.

Image: Out-going President Truman meets with incoming President Eisenhower to discuss the transition. (Is that a draft copy of the first Plum Book that Truman is handing to Eisenhower? 😉

With a touch of humor, someone at the original publishers decided the book should have a purple or plum-colored cover to reflect that it contained the “plum” political appointee jobs, and the tradition has stuck ever since for the printed version.

Executive Schedule and salary-equivalent positions paid at the rates established for Levels I through V of the Executive Schedule.

Senior Executive Service “General” positions (i.e., those positions which may be filled by a career, non-career, or limited appointment)

Senior Foreign Service positions

Schedule C positions excepted from the competitive service by the President, or by the Director, Office of Personnel Management, because of the confidential or policy-determining nature of the position duties

Other confidential or policy-determining positions at the GS-14 and above level excepted from the competitive civil service by law because of the confidential or policy-determining nature of the position duties

The duties of such positions may involve advocacy of Administration policies and programs, and the incumbents usually have a close and confidential working relationship with the agency head or other key officials.

To Fill or Not to Fill , that is the Question

Interestingly, the book lists ALL such political appointment positions, whether there is someone currently in the job or it was vacant as of June 30, 2016. If the job was occupied by a career Federal employee appointee, the phrase “Career Incumbent” is shown without a name; otherwise, the name of the political appointee is listed.

And positions such as boards, committees or commissions that require “member” positions by political party affiliation are listed with the name of the incumbent along with a (D) for Democrat, (R) for Republican or (I) for Independent.

Type of Appointment and Salaries

Listings are labeled with letter codes that denote the type of appointment under which the position is categorized:

Appointment Code

What It Stands For

CA

Career Appointment

EA

Limited Emergency Appointment

NA

Non-career Appointment

PA

Presidential Appointment without Senate Confirmation

PAS

Presidential Appointment with Senate Confirmation

SC

Schedule C Excepted Appointment

TA

Limited Term Appointment

XS

Appointment Excepted by Statute

However, several categories of jobs can be filled by more than one type of appointment, e.g., SES positions listed in this publication may be filled by using career Federal employees or various outside appointments. On these, no ‘‘Type of Appointment’’ is shown for such positions when they are vacant.

About the author:Adapted by Trudy Hawkins, Senior Marketing and Promotions Specialist in GPO’s Publication & Information Sales Division in Washington, DC, from an original post by Michele Bartram, former Government Book Talk Editorin support of the U.S. Government Online Bookstore (http://bookstore.gpo.gov).

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6 Responses to A Plum Book of Political Positions

Pretty interesting, never heard of the plum book but it does make sense to make all of that information available to the public. I wonder how long the book’s tradition will last and if a future president will change to discontinue it.

[…] For more information about political appointees, check out the Plum Book, to which this book is an important companion publication. Read about the Plum Book in our blog post, “A Plum Book of Political Positions”. […]

[…] Who was the first President to have a Plum Book? How many thousands of civil service leadership and support positions may be “subject to noncompetitive appointments,” or in other words, by direct political appointment? Explore the history of the “Plum Book” or United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions, now out in its latest 2012 edition for the beginning of the next Presidential term, and answer these questions and more in this week’s blog post: A Plum Book of Political Positions. […]

Different with you, United States.- Here, nepotism is everything concerned, in bureaucrat or corporate. After that, collusion makes them to find the money and to look for the authority for oppress the people. Tragic……..!!!!